Sophia is one of the world’s most sophisticated humanoid robots. As she chats with people, she emulates sadness, anger, curiousity, happiness, and other social cues, thanks to a life-like face made of a delightfully-named material called frubber (“flesh rubber”). Her designers at Hanson Robotics say her appearance was inspired by Audrey Hepburn.

Her face is made of a material called frubber – “flesh rubber”

BBC television presenter Michael Mosley sat down with Sophia and peppered her with a series of prepared questions, eliciting answers on everything from the jokes she knows to her opinion of humanity’s best and worst traits. In this interview, she’s not using artificial intelligence – her answers are scripted – but the interaction gives a compelling insight into how we might interact with humanoids like her in the future, and the emotions they might elicit in ourselves.